3rd Year Secrets
by RosaMetallicRock
Summary: Saraphina is jealous of her twin, Julianna, and tired of being her shadow. She competes with her for the boy she likes, then realises her heart belongs to another.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

It was late summer, only a few days away from the start of school. Saraphina Davis lay in the sand on the beach, eyes closed. She was alone, the beach was so quiet it almost could have been considered deserted. She opened her eyes and looked towards the sea. It was a beautiful green, with a hint of blue in it. Saraphina sat up. The sun was beginning to set, and the sky was a brilliant red, mixed with orange and yellow. She couldn't explain that moment in words, no camera could have captured the lovely feeling of witnessing such a marvellous sight. Saraphina stood up, arms outstretched, and ran towards the ocean, an ecstatic feeling spreading right through her. It was then, the water swirling around her ankles, that she made her wish.

_I wish, that this year, could be the best year of my hopeless life._

Half an hour later, Saraphina started slowly walking home, some of the happy feeling wearing off now. She checked her watch: it was now 8:45. She knew her mum would be angry, because she hadn't brought out her cheap Nokia phone like she was supposed to. She sighed, kicking an empty can into the road. No-one knew how unhappy she felt, and no-one completely understood her, she felt. She was the shadow of her beautiful, amazingly talented twin sister. Julianna.

Julianna Davis was the girl every girl wanted to be. She was the girl the boys, even the older ones, wolf-whistled when she walked past in the street. Even Saraphina grudgingly knew she was very pretty. Her height was a good 5"4, at 13, and she had a wonderfully slim figure to die for. She was tanned in a way that most models would envy, and had the most gorgeous hair, blonde and straight, with a few brown highlights that she put in herself. She had bright blue eyes which could melt anyone, including Tricia and Collin Davis, their strict parents. Even worse, not only was she very attractive, she was very intelligent as well. The Hogwarts teachers loved her, even Snape was impressed with her talent for potions and brewing. Filch was unusually polite to her and showed favouritism in a major way towards her.

The students of Hogwarts surrounded her, the girls full of compliments for her hair, style, looks and intelligence, and the boys were forever lining up to go out with her (though she turned them down claiming with a dazzling smile that she wasn't allowed to date).

Saraphina was very jealous of her twin, although she never admitted it, even to herself. She sighed again, then started moving a bit quicker. She knew her mum would be angry that she was out so late without permission, and didn't want to be too late.

"_Where have you been?"_

Tricia Davis stood with her hands on her hips, eyebrows raised, in the middle of her kitchen. Saraphina looked at the wooden floor.

"At the beach," Saraphina mumbled, knowing what was coming.

"How many times do I have to tell you to take your phone with you? You must phone if you're staying out late, especially when you are by yourself like that."

"Yes mum," Saraphina said, then shot off to her bedroom. Tricia could go on for hours when really het up. She sat on her bed, staring out of the window. It was slowly getting darker on the warm summer evening, and suddenly she was inspired. She picked up her sketch book, a sketch pencil and took a chair over to the window to get a good view. She took her pencil and began drawing the view. Half an hour later, it was too dark to get anymore done, but she had already got the sunset onto her page. The doorbell rang downstairs and Saraphina heard her mum go to answer the door.

"Hi mum," Julianna said.

"Hello darling, did you have a nice time at Tasha's party?" Tricia asked in a different tone to the one she used with Saraphina.

"Yeah! I met this really cool girl, and we're meeting up at the weekend…"

Saraphina stopped listening. It was painful listening to her going on about how wonderful her social life was.

"Well I'm afraid that might have to wait. Dad's taking you to Diagon Alley on Saturday. Your Hogwarts letters came today, here you are…Cornelia, I have your Hogwarts letter down here!" Tricia yelled. Saraphina forgot her sad feelings and rand down the stairs taking two at a time. She entered the kitchen more slowly, and took her Hogwarts letter. She opened it and scanned it. It wasn't very exciting, and she tossed it onto the table. Tricia frowned at her, but said no more as she ran back upstairs.

It was Saturday. Saraphina, Julianna and Collin were in Diagon Alley, on the warm, busy day. It was hard to talk, there was so much noise.

"Into Flourish and Blott's, girls!" Collin said, as the crowd separated them. Saraphina and Julianna fought their way through the people, and entered the book store, which was nice and cool. Julianna checked her list, and Cornelia did the same.

"What books do you need, Saraphina?" Collin asked, going over to her.

"The first on the list is _The Monster Book of Monsters_," Saraphina said. Collin approached the manager. "Can I have _The Monster Book of Monsters_ please?"

The man turned pale. "The Monster… Alright, alright, one second. Hang on, they're a little, um, vicious…"

He carefully approached the window display with a stick. He darted forwards quickly and grabbed a book, which he then tied a belt around.

"Be careful," panted the man, "they can get nasty." Saraphina stared in horror at the violent book. "Anything else?"

Saraphina left the shop, tears of laughter running down her face. The manager looked as though he was about to faint when Collin had ordered another _Monster Book of Monsters_. The fight between the books had been very entertaining.

"Need any more potion ingredients this year?" Collin asked, walking away from the book store.

"Yeah, some Horklump juice, tube worms and pickled slugs," said Julianna.

"Same," Saraphina said. They made their way to the Apothecary, which stank of all the different ingredients all piled into one shop.

"I'll wait outside," Saraphina told Collin and Julianna. She leant against the badly painted wall and watched all the fascinating people go past. A big group of people all with red hair walked past, and at the end was the person she had wanted to see all summer. Harry Potter.

Saraphina blushed and tried not to look at him. He was gorgeous, Saraphina thought, willing her face not to go any redder. They went past without even acknowledging she was there. She supposed she was kind of thankful, but also sort of wished that Harry had noticed her. She stared wistfully after them, but he didn't even turn around.

"Come on Saraphina," said Collin suddenly. She turned around and saw her dad and twin stood giving her strange looks.

"Coming," said Saraphina, following the two of them to the next shop.

It was now September. Saraphina stood by herself, with her trunk, on Platform 9 and 3/4. Everyone else was chattering and laughing, excited to be going back to Hogwarts. Nearby, Julianna had met up with Ron, Hermione, Neville, Parvati, Lavender and worst of all, Harry. She yearned to go and join them, but was too shy to. Instead, she stood alone, looking around enviously at the large groups.

"Time to go!" she heard some people say. She picked up her trunk and followed the huge crowd of people all heading towards the Hogwarts Express. It was hard, but she eventually managed to shove her way through. But she had a slight dilemma. She didn't know where to sit. Everyone had their friendship groups, and she…well, Saraphina was a loner really.

"Hey, Sara."

It was Fred and George Weasley. Saraphina was surprised they even knew her name.

"Yes?" Saraphina said cautiously: they were well-known pranksters.

"Do you want to come into our compartment with us? If you have no-one else to sit with, that is," George said quickly.

"Is this a joke?" Saraphina asked with a small smile.

"No!" George's face told her he really meant it.

"You don't have to," said Fred. He and George turned away to sit in their compartment again.

"Wait," said Saraphina hurriedly, not wanting to past up a rare opportunity. "Wait for me."

The twins grinned at her. They waited as she dragged her trunk over to their compartment. They helped her lift up her trunk onto the rack above, then the three of them sat down.

"There's a few more coming in," Fred informed Saraphina. She sighed. More people to notice her sat huddled in the corner, not talking to anyone. But it didn't look as though the twins would let her do that. They asked her question after question about everything, and they wanted answers. Saraphina found she enjoyed talking to them. They seemed genuinely interested in what she was saying, and they didn't laugh at her like most people did either.

"Hi guys," said a tall, attractive black girl. She sat down next to Saraphina. "Hey, who are you?"

"Saraphina," mumbled Saraphina.

"Cool name. I'm Angelina Johnson."

"Hey Angelina. I think you're the only person in the whole world who thinks my name is cool."

"I like your name," George chipped in. Beside him, Fred nodded.

"Yo guys," said another tall black person. He slumped down next to Fred. "I've already lost 10 points for pushing one of the prefects so I could get on the train first. It wasn't THAT hard of a push…"

"Same here!" said another girl, entering the compartment. "Those idiots…"

Within 5 minutes of the train leaving, the group of 5th years and Saraphina were engaged in conversation. By the time they had all got into one of the carriages near Hogsmeade, she had made six new friends, even I they were older than her; it didn't matter, because they had a lot in common.

At Hogwarts itself, in the pouring rain, Saraphina had her first encounter of the year with Draco Malfoy.

"Watch it," Draco hissed, when he deliberately barged into her.

"Why don't YOU watch it?" Saraphina said fiercely, taking him, Crabbe and Goyle by surprise. She was sure they'd get her later for that but she didn't care. She marched up the steps, leaving him and his friends there, to catch up with her new friends. In the Great Hall, she tried to sit with them, but was shunted along somehow and ended up next to a new student, presumably in her year.

"Hi! I'm Vivienne!" said the girl when Saraphina sat next to her moodily. "But you can call me Vivi if you want."

"Hi Vivi," Saraphina said, trying to sound and look happier than she felt. "I'm…Sara."

"That's a nice name. My name is so naff, what were my parents thinking? My mum is obsessed with Muggles, my dad just thought it was a pretty name. Ha! What a joke!"

"My name is Saraphina, you know. I hate my name too." She expected the girl to laugh, but she didn't. She gasped theatrically.

"Oh my God, what a pretty name! I am so jealous! Love it! You're a 3rd Year, right?"

"Yeah," Saraphina said. Inside, her heart was singing. She already had 6 new friends, and Vivienne looked promising. She settled down as Dumbledore got up, preparing to make a speech, and she already knew it was going to be an interesting year.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts!" Dumbledore said cheerily, as the students settled down. Some gazed longingly at the food, but most showed Dumbledore respect and listened. "I have a few things to say before we begin our marvellous feast, which I will get out of the way now…

"As many of you will have heard, Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban." There was muttering at this, but was soon stopped at one look at McGonagall's face.

"The Ministry of Magic have stationed some Dementors at every entrance of the castle, and I just want to let each and every one of you know that you must stay inside the castle unless visiting Hogsmeade this year. First and Second Years, this does not apply to you, but to older students, you must not sneak out by any means. They are not to be fooled by, let's say, invisibility cloaks."

At these words, about a dozen people turned around and grinned at Harry. He looked embarrassed, but also slightly pleased.

"Anyway, nothing can trick a Dementor, and they do not understand pleas. They are unlikely to show mercy, so please, do not attempt to sneak out."

At the end of this extraordinary proclamation, there was a long, awkward silence as Dumbledore stood, looking grave. Then his wise old face broke out into a grin.

"On a happier note, I have two more announcements. I would like to welcome Professor Lupin to Hogwarts. He will be this year's Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

Lupin stood up. He wasn't the smartest dressed teacher but he had a friendly smile which made Saraphina think he'd be a good, fun teacher. There was a short, polite round of applause. She saw Harry and his friends clap louder than anyone else, so she copied them. Beside her, Vivi gave her an odd look.

"And," Dumbledore continued after the applause died down, "Professor Kettleburn has retired due to the fact he only has 2 or 3 limbs left, so, taking his place, is Reubeus Hagrid!"

There was a silence, then a tremendous amount of applause from the Gryffindor table, Harry and his friends in particular.

"I think that is all I need to mention, so let's begin our marvellous feast!" said Dumbledore. As soon as the applause stopped, everyone tucked into the feast that had just appeared.

"So where do you come from then?" Vivi asked as they piled food onto their plates.

"St Ives," Saraphina said. "What about you?"

"I come from this seaside place, Weymouth. It's pretty cool there."

"Nice. I think I visited there once, it's got great shops."

"I know right! I should visit St Ives soon, I'll pester my mum to take me."

The rest of the feast was spent in silence: the girls had a competition in which they tried to eat the most food. They felt ill afterwards when they all filed out of the Great Hall.

"Hey, Sara!" It was Fred and George, pushing their way through some 2nd Years. "Going to stay in the Common Room late tonight like us and the others?"

Saraphina pondered for a moment. She wanted to have fun with her new friends, but actually, she felt really sick and was quite tired.

"Sorry guys, I feel really ill and I'm exhausted," she said apologetically. "I'll see you tomorrow."

The twins looked disappointed. They walked to the Gryffindor Common Room with her, then both hugged her before she went up to the 3rd Year dorm.

"Those two fancy you," said Vivi, giggling, as they got into their pyjamas.

"I don't know, they're just friendly in a loud, obvious way," said Saraphina, thinking it was ludicrous that anyone, let alone two loud 5th Years, would ever like her in that way.

"Maybe." They got into their beds. Saraphina felt better already as she snuggled into her cosy bed. Outside, it was pouring with rain still and there was even a bit of thunder. But that, nor Julianna coming in with her noisy friends, didn't stop the two of them falling fast asleep quickly.

"Hey, Sara."

"Sara. Sara. SARA!"

Sara sat up quickly. She turned around to see the twins grinning at her, and immediately felt embarrassed.

"Guys, it's 2am and I look a sight," Sara groaned. She tried to go back to bed, but Fred pulled her out.

"Come on, get changed and come with us."

Sara didn't bother asking what they were doing, she just got up and pulled out some of her clothes. She was about to get changed when she noticed Fred and George staring at her.

"Go out then!" Sara said, laughing, pushing them both out and shutting the door. She put on her favourite stripy t-shirt, her red hoodie and her black skinny jeans, brushed her hair and applied quite a lot of makeup. She went outside, where they were both waiting for her.

"Dressed up much?" Fred asked, eyebrows raised at her hair and makeup, but he was smiling. He took hold of her hand and led her off, out of the Common Room, down the corridors and eventually onto the Quidditch pitch.

"Do you like Quidditch?" George asked her.

"Well…yeah," Saraphina said. "Who doesn't?"

"He meant," said Fred, "do you like playing it?"

"Um," said Saraphina, guessing where this was going," I'm not very good."

"Why don't we find that out for ourselves?" said Fred, with another one of his grins. She noticed that George had brought out his broomstick with him.

"Not a good idea," said Saraphina, turning to go back to the castle. But George caught her arm gently.

"This will be fun," said George, "and it's not hard."

Saraphina looked at him. His chocolate brown eyes were willing her to stay, and she couldn't take it.

"Fine, I'll stay," she said, "so show me how to do this."

George started off by showing her how to grasp and sit on the broom. She was a surprisingly quick learner for this, unusual for her because she wasn't so good in lessons. Then Fred said the words she had been dreading.

"I think it's time for you to actually try flying now."

Saraphina must have looked freaked out, because as soon as she sat on George's broom, he sat behind her and held her tightly around the waist.

"Don't worry, I'm right behind you," said George. "Now, remember what I told you, how to get off the ground…that's it…"

Saraphina had kicked off, and soared off into the night's sky. She had a wonderful feeling inside of her, because she wasn't quite as bad as she thought she was.

"Well done!" said George," that was really good! Now try to fly around a bit." Saraphina put all her effort in, and ended up zooming round the pitch at top speed. She shrieked loudly, though enjoying it, and George held her tighter, more protectively. She had never had so much fun, hurtling around at high speed which George reckoned was so fast it was illegal. For the first time, her sister wasn't on her mind and she knew this time that she, for once, was better than Julianna at something.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"Where were you? You weren't in bed when I got up at 7."

Saraphina and Vivi were in the Great Hall. Saraphina was trying to look as though she hadn't been out all night with the Weasley twins and that she'd had a good night's sleep.

"I had probably just got up to go to the loo then or something," she lied, taking some toast. The twins chose to walk past at that point, both grinning naughtily at her. They sat down on either side of her.

"Hi Sara," Fred and George said in unison.

"Hi guys," Saraphina said, willing the two not to spill what they did last night.

"Tonight, do you want to-"

"Guys, do you mind if we talk later?" Saraphina interrupted. She gave them a look and they clearly got it.

"Ok," said George, getting up with Fred," see you later then."

"Bye," she said, watching them go. Before they left, George turned around and winked at her.

"They so fancy you," said Vivi, also staring at them.

"I tell you, they do not!" said Saraphina loudly, as McGonagall passed them their timetables. "What have you got?"

"History of Magic. You?"

"Divination. What 'bout after that? Give us your timetable."

Saraphina examined Vivi's timetable. They didn't have any lessons together apart from Potions just before lunch.

"Well, I guess I'll see you in Potions then," Saraphina said, getting up. "I'd better go now, I don't know where I'm going. Bye."

"Bye."

Vivi didn't sound happy. But Saraphina put that out of her mind. She walked out slowly, then saw Harry, Ron and Hermione walking up the stairs.

"Hey guys!" said Saraphina, running to catch them up. "Are you going to Divination?"

"Yeah," said Ron. "Do you know where it is?"

"No," said Saraphina, "haven't a clue."

"Well we'll have to find it together," said Hermione, which was what she was hoping for. They travelled up the stairs together, as a four. They chatted as they slowly made their way up, breathing heavily.

"Nearly…there…" Harry panted. "Here it is…"

In the mysterious room, it was roasting hot and Saraphina could have fainted. She pushed her wild red hair out of her eyes, her forehead sweaty, as Professor Trelawney emerged from the shadows. From the moment she started talking, she could have fallen asleep…

"Wake up," Ron hissed. Saraphina shot up and tried to look as she hadn't been asleep for the past 10 minutes. An hour later, they all wished they could have slept through the lesson. All they wanted to do was to relax.

"Your homework is to read the next 3 chapters!" Trelawney cried as the class groaned. They all quickly filed out of the hot room as the bell went.

"Care of Magical Creatures next!" Saraphina heard Harry say to Ron and Hermione. Butterflies fluttered around in her stomach. She ran up to them.

"Do you guys mind if I walk with you?" she asked.

"Sure," said Hermione. "Car of Magical Creatures should be good, shouldn't it?"

"Definitely if Hagrid's going to be teaching," Saraphina agreed.

An hour and a half later, the class came away, the Gryffindor's fretting about Hagrid, the Slytherin's fuming that Draco Malfoy was 'injured so badly'.

"Don't be stupid, he's not that hurt," Saraphina snapped at Pansy Parkinson, who was in floods of tears. The two girls glowered at each other.

"Ignore them," Hermione said. "Let them believe what they want." Eventually, they all went as a big group to the hospital wing, which the Gryffindor's knew would earn them a yelling from Madam Pomfrey.

"I'm going to lunch now, see you later," Saraphina said, starving hungry and wanting to speak to the twins.

"We'll come too, we're starving," said Harry, making Saraphina feel really happy. She led the way into the Great Hall, and they all sat down, helping themselves hungrily. In the middle of eating, Fred and George came and sat with them.

"Wanna talk now?" Fred asked. Saraphina gave him a look, her mouth completely full.

"Not…now!" Saraphina gasped, swallowing her food finally. "I'll meet you in the Courtyard in…10 minutes."

"Five," said George, getting up. "That's a deal. Bye."

Saraphina rolled her eyes. Just as she hanging out with Harry, the twins HAD to come and interrupt.

"Guess I'd better go," Saraphina said. "See you guys later."

She got up, swung her bag onto her shoulder, and made her way to the Courtyard. The twins were waiting for her on a bench, where they immediately moved up to make room for her.

"So we were thinking," Fred began, "we should set off some dung bomb's in the Slytherin Common Room. Would you like to join us?"

"Yes, definitely," Saraphina said excitedly. "But won't we get into huge trouble?"

"IF we get caught, yes," George said smiling. "Are you in?"

Saraphina thought for a bit. Then she grinned wickedly. "Yes."


End file.
